Prime Minister of the Government of National Accord (GNA), Faiez Al-Sarraj, has invited the Libyan National Army’s Commander Khalifa Haftar to visit the GNA headquarters in Tripoli and discuss unification, StrategyPage reported on Friday. Al Sarraj spoke with Haftar when both were at the Libya Conference in Italy on 13 November.
Many of GNA backers and international partners are looking to Haftar and his LNA are the only force in Libya that has consistently for over five years worked to unify the country rather than plunder it. The report stressed that the visit of Haftar to the capital Tripoli is dangerous because the city is controlled by numerous militias, some of them led by Islamic radicals, who see the LNA as the end of their independence, but the majority of the capital’s residents would like to see the LNA commander come to discuss peace of the country.
The report pointed out that Haftar decided to postpone sending the national army to the capital of Tripoli until Al-Sarraj and GNA be on his side. He also refused to participate in the main meeting of Palermo Conference because he did not want to negotiate with Islamic extremist groups that still control militias in Libya. The U.N. and many European countries still back negotiating with the Islamic radicals, and Al-Sarraj wishes to follow the path of Haftar, but unlike him, Al-Sarraj does not have much military clout to deal with the Islamic militias in Tripoli and other cities in western Libya.
The report did not mention its sources, so all this remains mere speculation.
